Toyota says it will know by the middle of this year whether it will keep its Australian manufacturing base beyond 2018, despite new figures showing it remains the country's most popular carmaker.

Australians bought a record number of cars last year but showed a marked preference for imported over locally manufactured vehicles.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' annual report on new vehicles shows more than 1.136 million were sold last year, compared with 1.112 million in 2012.

Toyota was the top-rating brand with about 214,000 sales, ahead of Holden, Hyundai, Mazda and Ford, but its total sales dropped.

Vehicle sales figures for 2013:- A record 1,136,227 cars were sold in Australia- Toyota topped the list with 214,630- Imports accounted for 1,017,717- Locally-made vehicles fell from 139,796 to 118,510- Local Commodores dropped from 30,532 to 27,766 Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries

Toyota's head office in Japan will decide this year whether to renew Toyota Australia's contract to make the Camry model for export, including to the Middle East.

Director of sales and marketing Tony Cramb says if it does not win that bid, it will have to join Holden and Ford and close its Australian manufacturing operations.

"That is a process that we're going through now. We're working with our suppliers and our stakeholders to determine whether or not that's possible," he said.

"In order to achieve that we need to earn the next generation of Camry with export, and that decision will be made this year."

Locally made cars big losers of 2013

Sales of new Holden and Ford vehicles also dropped in 2013, with locally-made cars hit hard, down from a combined total of about 140,000 in 2012 to under 119,000.

Holden sold about 28,000 local Commodores last year, a 9 per cent drop and down from more than 57,000 in 2007, while Cruze sales also fell to below 25,000.

New Ford Falcons also proved less popular, dropping by about 3,500 but Mitsubishi purchases surged by almost 13,000.

The release of the figures comes in the wake of decisions by Holden and Ford to withdraw their manufacturing bases from Australia.

Ford will pull out by the end of 2016, with Holden to go by the end of 2017.